VIDEO: Hawaii student records unbelievable sight in ocean

Video shows the largest school of anchovies ever seen off San Diego, California

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA (HawaiiNewsNow) -
Amazing video taken by a Hawaii graduate student is going viral because of the never-before-seen image she managed to capture.

The three-minute clip shows what researchers believe is the largest school of anchovies seen in decades off the San Diego, California coast.

Julia Fieldler is a Punahou High School graduate now studying oceanography at the Scripps Research Institute. She and a few other researchers borrowed a Go-Pro camera to capture the underwater video. It shows a thick, black band of fish extending for several miles. It is estimated that the school of fish was 15 feet deep.

“It’s like a black cloud of fish and you stick your hand out and it’s like a force field the way they all swim away from you,” Fieldler said. “It’s kind of fun swimming into the middle of them. You don’t exactly know when you’re going to come out on the other side or if they’re going to disperse. It was crazy.”

Fieldler and her friends – and all those fish – were not alone in the water.

Several leopard sharks are seen in the video feeding off of the massive school. Fieldler says the sharks are harmless, and she was never afraid.